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Vikings Political Life
Until the mid 8th century, people in Sweden lived in small chiefdoms and petty kingdoms that often only was a couple of farms or a small village with one leader. The political and economic thinking among the vikings increased and they were heading towards becoming a state. The state started to form around 750 AD. At first there was, as mentioned, smaller chiefdoms through out Sweden. These small chiefdoms then turned into more powerful chiefdoms that took more land. As time went by Sweden then had two large tribes and there was two nationalities. You could either be a ”Göter” or a ”Svear”, they had kings as their leaders. Later on in history the two states came together and formed Sweden around the 13th century. IMG_2490.PNG|Swedens division in the 12th century. The Thing The Vikings gathered twice a year in things (ting in Swedish) once in the autumn and once in spring, in the thing they payed taxes and settled legal disputes. If they decided that you had committed a crime you could be punished by being outlawed, tortured or paying fines. Laws could be made during the thing, and every free man had a say in deciding if someone was guilty or not, they could also decide the punishment, free men could also help creating laws. Historians believe that there was a lot of corruption, there is a lot of chance that powerfull families easily could affect the law. If there was a fight between families they could settle it at the thing, through man to man combat or other solutions. Punishments There were different punishments that could be administered for breaking the law. If you were found guilty you would either be fined or fully-outlawed. If you were fined, it could not only consist of property and money things but also body parts. Depending on what your crime was you would be disposed of either your nose, eye, ear or such. If you were outlawed it meant that you were completely thrown out of the society, cut of form all supplies including food and support. In the process all the belongings were also confiscated and the person was left for dead. There were also other death penalties such as hanging or beheading. If you were under the age of 15 you could not be punished and your crimes would be thought of as accidents. If someone was convicted there was a possibility that the winning side would have to be the one making sure that the loosing side pays whatever the fine is. However, there could be an agreement that they would have a duel instead, to settle the fight with violence. That is why the strong families and individuals didn’t often get punished. The Viking colonisation in the west The people living in the north had long traded with the rest of Europe but around the beginning of the 9th century, the weak political states in the rest of Europe gave the people who lived in Scandinavia access to spread out, thus the creation of the Vikings, who plundered and colonised big parts of Europe that were at the time thorn apart, like the franks. At the time the franks did not have a strong leader to hold the kingdom together and so they did not have the resources to fight back. Similar was it to this in England and Ireland who were also plundered by the Vikings a lot. Even though the Vikings raided from their own settlements in Scandinavia, they did establish trading outposts that also worked as launch points for further raiding.One example is a settlement made in Ireland by a Danish Viking king, that place is today the city of Dublin. The plundering stopped in most places due to political agreements, such as the one with the franks. The franks agreed to give them land in the northern parts of their kingdom, which later became known as Normandie "land of the Northmen", in exchange the Vikings would stop their plunders and covert to Christianity. Parts of the Viking population did settle down in the new place, but they soon mixed in with the original French culture and people that surrounded them. Kings in the Middle Ages In the 9th century Sweden became one kingdom. But the Swedish Kings had little power. When a king died his eldest son did not have to inherit the throne. It might go to a younger son or even to the dead kings brother. The Kings power slowly increased as the centuries passed. Olaf Tryggvason: Brought Christianity to Norway, Olaf was the grand son of Harald Fairhair, he was the first king to unite Norway. In 991, Olaf led a Viking invasion of England, which resulted in a victory at the Battle of Maldon. Gorm den gamle from to 958 United Denmark and became the first king of Denmark. Harald Hardrada was the Last Great Viking Leader born in 1015, he was the king in Norway from 1045-1066 he also died that year at the Battle of Stamforn Bridge in England, 1066.